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Thursday, January 04, 2007

Dining Out @ Max! Kitchen And Wines, Tengkat Tong Shin, KL

The Net connection seems to be pretty good today so hopefully you can access the pictures I have today. We made a few visits to this place as we can't get enough of this restaurant's yummy food. So far, everyone we have introduced this place love it too which is such great news to hear. You'll see two contrasting sets of pictures as one was taken during lunchtime where the light was the best and another one during night time where the light was dimmer.

Taking over the old Jiak Guan restaurant and right next to Sao Nam on the refurbished Tengkat Tung Shin, Max! Kitchen and Wines is run by Max Chin, a former chef from Regent Hotel. The menu selection may be small (we have tried basically everything on it now) but he makes it up with the freshest and most delicious dishes. Cooking is mainly done at a large grill next to the bar counter so if you want you can see Max in action.

He also serves an excellent set lunch during the weekdays for RM18++ (appetiser and main). The menu for the set lunch changes all the time so you won't get sick of eating it five days in a row. He offers a choice of two sets which we took the two. The first picture you see was the smoked salmon served with mesclun greens, capsicum salsa and balsamic reduction while the above picture was potato tomato soup with artichoke hearts. Everything tastes great and since I'm a balsamic vinegar and artichokes fan, no complaints about the dressing and the soup.

For mains, we were served the chargrilled minute strip loin of beef fillet served on top of mash potatoes and old mustard sauce. The steak was perfectly grilled and juicy that complemented the thick mash potatoes.

My favourite was their simple chargrilled sole fillet served with yabbies tails and a sweet vermouth beurre blanc (butter sauce). My friend who loves yabbies really enjoyed this that day and even though it was a small portion of yabbies, who can complain since it's a set lunch.

We added an order of Pannacotta (RM12) which my friend loves. This one is nice and wobbly with just the right amount of gelatine added. Served with a delicious tiramisu ice cream and fresh fruits. They also serve Illy coffee here which is an extra at RM4 to your set lunch.

For dinnertime, I only snapped pictures of our first dinner here and not the recent one as we were with a group of friends. Another salad but this time it was with chargrilled portobello mushrooms (RM22) which was rich and earthy. We also had the tuna loin with capsicum salsa which I messed up the picture as I tried using my flash.

We had to have the Yabby Lobster Tails (RM25) as it's a favourite of ours. Extremely fresh and yummy. At the recent dinner we had, we all shared the Bay Scallops Chargrilled on the Shell(RM25) which were excellent. They serve it with a balsamic reduction which complements the juicy scallops.

For mains, we had the roasted duck breast served with an orange sauce spiked with Drambuie. This wasn't too good that night as it was slightly tough.

One of our favourites was the chargrilled ocean trout fillet(RM45) which looks like salmon but is less cloyingly rich. It's flown in from Tasmania and tastes great with the butter sauce and mash potatoes.

This is a must have - their signature Braised Shiraz Wagyu Beef Cheeks with mushroom ragout (RM60). The Wagyu Beef cheeks are so soft and gelatinous from the long braising in the rich red wine. Extremely addictive and you'll ask for extra bread to mop up the delicious juices.

We have also tried the Cod which was pretty okay, the lamb cutlets which was good and the beef tenderloin served with pan fried duck liver that was cooked to perfection and had a melt in the mouth texture. For our last visit, we tried the new dessert, Kataifi with Strawberries, Straccialetta Ice Cream and Coffee Oil which was fantastic and great to look at (a picture is found in the Star weekend's review). It comes in a huge platter so do share that with your friends. Besides the menu, he also does a tasting menu served with champagne. Private parties can be catered for upstairs. Although we don't drink wine, our friends rave about their wine collection and the prices are pretty reasonable too.

Max! Kitchen and Wines27 Tengkat Tong Shin

Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 - 2141 8115

(Open for lunch and dinner on Monday to Fridays and dinner during the weekends)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Hi, Woaw, all these wonderful pictures !! it remember me how it was cool !!! Thank you very much for the link on my blog ;-) I should say that my favorite is the Braised Shiraz Wagyu Beef Cheeks with mushroom ragout, so good !!!

i hv yet to find time to go there esp now when i'm often at my clients in pj. the pics are loading slowly but i've read thru every delicious description. cant wait to go there plus the price is so reasonable!

OMIGOOOOOOOOODNEESSSSS!!!! speeechless. i've put on a kilo just by looking at the pics. argh, i cant wait to go try that place!!!!! and that picture of the minute strip loins, ack, looks like foie gras. groannnn, i need to go there like NOWWWWW!!!! but i cantttt.

hiya annoymous - looks like you have dined there a few times. Didn't know abt the goose liver but I had it with tenderloin that day and totally enjoyed the dish. Our still all time fav is his beef cheeks.